


Symbiosis

by Aricle



Category: Mass Effect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 22:07:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 5,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aricle/pseuds/Aricle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Response to a masskink prompt:</p><p>Paragon!FemShep (no preference for rep or background) and TIM developed a fairly healthy relationship at some point. I don't care how, why or when, it's up to A!A if they even want to go there.</p><p>During ME3, FemShep, being incarcerated and therefore unable to even attempt to persuade TIM not to mess with the Collector base (destroyed or not), notices his growing indoctrination. But, of course, can't do shit about it. </p><p>Eventually, he gets those Reaper tech augmentations, and even though they disgust her, they give him even superior sexual prowess. Still, sexytimes ensue (preferably involving oral sex and multiple positions). Thus a seed of indoctrination is planted, and sure enough, it's addictive the more they fuck the more indoctrinated they both become.</p><p>What happens to then to not only them, but the rest of the galaxy/ending is up to A!A. I'd prefer if neither of them got somehow un-indoctrinated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thessia

**Author's Note:**

> Edited and expanded from the masskink version.

She fingered the holographic fabric of his jacket, her face in his, then yanked at the shimmering fabric despite her hands punching through it, wanting to bring him closer. She stabbed the air with her finger for emphasis as she spoke, “You are indoctrinated and can't even see it. Do you really think you can control them now that you've let them inside you? Paul Grayson couldn't control himself- what makes you different?”

 

“Grayson? He was nothing but a red sand addict. I was the one controlling him.”

 

“He knew when to quit though- do you?”

 

“Quit? I'm winning. You were always the do-gooder, Shepard. I would never have altered you to remove that but it slows you down. We could have done better had you kept the Collector Base.”

 

“I think salvaging the Reaper brain was more than you deserved,” she said heatedly. “How could you use the lives of so many to your own advantage? It's not about humanity anymore for you. It's about power. The power the Reapers promise you changes you from the inside out and you don't even see it.”

 

“If only _you_ could see...” He stepped closer, his transparent outlines superimposed on her. “I'll leave you to it- and to Kai Leng.”

 

He faded from view amidst the temple pillars, leaving Shepard shaking her head.


	2. Voyeur

The Illusive Man sat in his chair, watching the red sun roil in his view, sipping a drink while letting a cigarette consume itself. “Shepard...”

 

Calling up an oft-accessed file, he watched the vid of her being repaired, and spoke aloud to the battered body in the operating suite, “You were reconstructed by me from the inside out. If only I could show you the power you could have. It's no good forcing it on you, you have to want it for yourself, as much as I want it for you.”

 

An incoming comm signal interrupted his thoughts and he tapped a finger to open a window.

 

“Thanks to Shepard, I've got what we need.”

 

“Excellent, Kai. Remember though: it's not we, it's me.”

 

“I didn't get to finish Shepard off,” he scowled.

 

“That is not your purpose here! Go debrief and wait for your next assignment.”

 

He swirled his drink and wondered. Why do I care if Kai kills Shepard? It would make him feel more important and cement his loyalty, but it would be such a waste. He is an improvement on her with his unquestioning loyalty yet I miss being challenged by someone, by _her._

 

Setting aside the glass, he leaned forward, flicking through data files. Ah, there, Shepard after her reconstruction and escape with Jacob, meeting her for the first time.

 

The shimmering figures talk, standing in the air in front of him. He could speak each word from memory as he watches her. Her surprise at not meeting him in person yet always the professional.

 

His implants itch and crawl and he shakes his head irritably at the sensation. The tug in his brain makes his vision darken at the edges as he watches Shepard's glowing outlines.

 

His hand moves lower, down his body, and settles lightly on the fabric of his immaculate pants, tracing circles around his crotch. The bulge beneath his fingers grows and his vision clears.

 

“I can control it, I can control them- and you,” he says softly to Shepard, now frozen before him as the vid has come to an end. He rotates her to face him.

 

Unfastening his pants and loosening his undergarments, he takes himself in hand as he stares into her eyes.

 

She moves closer to him as he strokes himself, spreading his legs carefully apart. He frowns then pauses to stand and remove his pants to prevent them from wrinkling. He places them neatly aside and returns to his chair.

 

“No incoming calls, please,” he speaks to the air, to the waiting assistant.

 

He then relaxes into the practiced pleasure of speaking with Shepard while bringing himself off.

 

She stands before him, a look of hurt in her eyes as she asks him about Kaidan's presence on Horizon. Her anger surfaces beneath the nuanced cadence of giving her report to him and colours her words.

 

He ignores her emotion and activates a simulation of himself while re-directing her to the task at hand. In reality, he finds her intensity arousing and touches himself for the first time while speaking to her directly. His suite of communication software allows him to conceal his arousal from his voice and stay on-topic in more than just words.

 

As she closes the connection with him in anger, he comes with a satisfying flush of heat.

 

Remembering this first time, he comes again, less messily and spontaneously, yet just as good in its own way. He wipes himself clean then pulls on his pants again.


	3. Unfiltered

Shepard watches the computer file, watches the Illusive Man decide to have the implants added.

 

“Fool,” she spits aloud in anger.

 

EDI and Garrus look at her in surprise.

 

“It's a waste, it's Saren all over again,” she clarifies.

 

The door opens under EDI's ministrations and they continue their battle through the base, to the Illusive Man's center of operations.

 

As they near the control room, Shepard goes battle-tense, nerves straining at the tang of indoctrination in the air, at the smell of death, the many Cerberus-augmented shock troops thrown at her to slow her down. No way for all the good she wants to do, has done, to balance out all of this death- nothing to do but strike down those responsible. To do that, she has to go through the Illusive Man and take him out on the way, if need be. She shudders, remembering Saren.

 

Seating herself in the chair, his chair, she activates the controls.

 

“Shepard- you're in my chair,” he says in surprise, materializing behind her.

 

She rises to face him, pointing her Disciple shotgun at him, while EDI and Garrus draw bead on him as well.

 

“I'm afraid you're too late once again,” he tells her, with a real tone of regret unfiltered by software. “This time, Kai intends to finish you off and you've become a liability. I wanted so much more for you, for us, but I cannot wait for you to see the truth.”

 

“Us? There is no us,” as she aims then fires, the slug tearing his hologram apart, which then reassembles itself.

 

Garrus and EDI exchange an uneasy look behind Shepard.

 

She places the Disciple where his temple shimmers, the netting of wireframe flickering below the shifting skin of light.

 

“Shepard, stop, he's not real,” Garrus says firmly, placing a hand on her arm.

 

EDI steps forward and the Illusive Man turns to her, “EDI, I'm surprised at you.”

 

Shepard reluctantly lowers her shotgun and rubs her temples. “I'm here to take what Kai Leng stole on Thessia,” her voice becoming firm once again.

 

Garrus sighs in uneasy relief and stands at semi-alert while EDI resumes her search through the database.

 

“It's too late for that now. I'll let Kai Leng take care of you while I finish what I've started,” the Illusive Man replied as he faded from view.

 

“Damn!” Shepard cries in frustration, and is then forced to attention as Kai Leng attacks.

 

As the final Phantom falls and Kai Leng's shields are eroded at last, Shepard returns to the chair. Some sense warns her, and she turns in time to pierce Kai with her omniblade.

 

“That's for Thane, you bastard!”

 

Pacing and rubbing her temples, she questions the Prothean VI as she realizes the extent of the Illusive Man's madness at having told the Reapers everything they need to know to defeat them.

 

“He's indoctrinated,” she muttered. “We have to stop him somehow.”

 

Garrus and EDI stand ready to return to the Normandy, waiting on Shepard's word.

 

“I need a moment,” she tells them. “We've cleared the base, so go on ahead and I'll meet you at the entry point.”

 

“Shepard? Are you sure?”

 

“Garrus, I'm sure. I know you've got my six.”


	4. Stop

As her team turned and left, she sank into the chair again, head in hands. Tired, just when she needed her energy most. She needed a moment alone, for once she returned to the Normandy, there would be no downtime during the endgame.

 

She sighed, taking in the view of the redly hued sun. A hand on her shoulder brought her around, omniblade flashing at the ready.

 

“Shepard, stop.”

 

“You?” she said in astonishment, staring at the Illusive Man.

 

“It's true what I said- you can't stop what I've set in motion, but I want you to join me. Think of it, humanity united in control of the Reapers. Think of the power.”

 

“Power? Where's the power in that? They erode you as you think you control them.”

 

Instead of speaking, he stepped closer. “You want to shake me and tell me off, don't you? Go ahead, I'm here.”

 

She rose and placed her hands on his shoulders to push him away, to shout at him, and felt her vision blur and thoughts thicken.

 


	5. Chair

“What are you doing?” she managed to say.

 

“Something I want, something you want,” he replied, bringing his mouth to hers. He kissed her greedily, hungrily, lips giving way to tongue as he opened her mouth to his with the urgency of his kisses. She kissed him back, hard, yet faintly aware of how wrong it felt, that it was not what she needed to be doing.

 

He placed his hand on her lower back and she felt the electricity surge through her, the heat uncoiling in her groin. She gasped as he kissed and licked her sensitive ears, moving along her neck. His skin tingled against hers, his implants flickering to life. She wanted to pull away yet found herself holding him close, pulling at his garments.

 

He pressed her into his chair and stood over her. “I think I like you in my chair, after all.”

 

Kneeling, he unfastened her armour from her legs, pulled her leggings free, until he was down to her underwear. He placed his mouth to the strip of black fabric and kissed her, feeling the moist heat below. He continued kissing the fabric, moving to the spot over her clit, until her fingers moved to slide the underwear aside.

 

Her hands fumbled with her underwear and she tried desperately to remember what it was she had been about to do before he showed up. As she pushed the underwear free at last, his mouth found her folds and she gasped. His tongue circled her clit lightly, then moved down, licking the moisture from her lips. He sucked her clit eagerly, then gently, alternating slow and fast, light and hard. Sliding a finger inside her, he moved in and out while kissing her. She spread her legs and buried her fingers in his once-immaculate hair.

 

His vision darkened at the edges as he felt a surge of distaste at her fingers in his hair, at being touched so untidily. He pushed the thought away, wanting only to taste as much of her as possible.

 

“Harder, please, with your fingers,” Shepard pleaded with him, placing her legs on his shoulders.

 

He fucked her with two then three fingers as she moaned and shivered, at last giving in and stroking her own clit with one hand while the other clenched and unclenched. He watched her do battle with herself as she approached her climax, remembering his own battles to preserve himself, and for what?

 

She came, with a cry on the verge of pain, her body contracting around his fingers. He saw her start to close herself to him, then her eyes widened and lost focus.

 


	6. Go

“Your turn,” she whispered, standing and turning him towards the chair.

 

“My turn,” he agreed, ignoring the unfocused intensity of her gaze until the shadows filled his vision again, and he swayed under their influence, falling into the chair, letting his head rest against the curved back.

 

Shadows clouded Shepard's vision, urging her to clumsy action, to do this thing, then return to the Normandy. She knelt, opening the trousers of a man she had once considered an equal, despite their differences of opinion. Now? What was he? _I want him,_ a whisper filled her brain, and she took him in hand then mouth, inexpertly at first then smoothly as her coordination returned.

 

He grabbed her hair and pressed her face into his crotch, dimly surprised at his urgency yet wanting her more than anything. Once, he had fucked a semi-alert Kai Leng in the early stages of his transition from man to servant- a flare in his brain- to _useful weapon_ , and it had been a relief but nothing like this, with a responsive partner, with Shepard, someone he had never been able to dominate. _And now?_ Don't think about it, something told him, and he acquiesced.

 

She sucked him, drawing him deep into her throat then easing him out, caressing him with her lips, sliding him against the roof of her mouth then bathing him in her eager tongue.

 

He cried out at the unrelenting pleasure that both brought the shadows closer yet made them more comfortable, more a part of him, of them. He could see her own darkening, and welcomed it. Together, they could forge and wield control. He was sure of it, as he came into her mouth and she swallowed his seed. For every small potential life he ejaculated, a life was extinguished somewhere in the galaxy, he realized as the darkness momentarily lifted, and he shuddered in horror. Shepard took this as part of his release and sucked harder, and he forgot what he had just seen.

 

She straddled his lap and took his softening cock in hand, bringing it to her damp folds, teasing herself and him with the promise of more. He wanted to fuck her then, but they both knew there wasn't time, that it wasn't the time.

 

_You must go._

 

They both stood, adjusting their clothes and gear, a bit awkward, until he helped her fasten her armour, his hands lingering on her thighs.

 

She turned and left, to rejoin her crew and the final push to the end.


	7. Last Night's Rest

Shepard curled up in her bed, ordering herself to rest for the battle ahead. Instead, she found herself remembering Ilos and the night before, when Kaidan had come to her bed, come to her at last. That bridge had been burned long ago, after Horizon. He was now a welcome member of the crew but they had not been able to find their way back to what had been, despite their feelings for each other. Neither of them had seen a way forward either, in the midst of death and the shadows that seemed so close these days.

 

She blinked away tears, missing him, missing the warm touch of a caring person who saw her as more than a saviour or hero. She looked at her private terminal, wondering what would happen if she called him...

 

The console flickered to life, a flashing light indicating an incoming message. She rose from the bed, not daring to hope at the timing of the message.

 

When she activated the console, she was startled to see the Illusive Man's face fill the screen.

 

“Shepard- the fight is coming- and I want to see you before it starts, before the end,” his face contorted and he corrected himself, “the _beginning_. I can come to your quarters undetected, thanks to leftover tech from the SR-2. The Alliance didn't know its purpose, so they left it intact, fortunately.”

 

“You or a hologram?” she asked, buying herself time to think.

 

“Me- if you want me,” he said.

 

Without hesitation, she said, “Yes,” wanting to be held, wanting him, her doubts erased at the look in his vivid blue eyes.

 

“I'll be there- and, Shepard?”

 

“What?”

 

“Turn off the exterior console, please.”

 

She told EDI she wanted to rest and turned off the small unit. Wrapping her arms about herself, she stared at her fish, spoke to her space hamster, and wondered at what she had invited.

 


	8. Time

The smell of tobacco told her he was there a moment before he took her in his arms, holding her close from behind, stroking her hair with one hand and encircling her waist with the other. Relaxing into his arms, she rested her head against his shoulder, feeling their bodies mesh. He kissed her neck gently, his lips soft against her skin, following the curve down to the lapel of her nightshirt, pushing it aside and moving down to her collarbone. He traced along it with the tip of his tongue, bringing his hand up to pull the fabric away from his lips, away from her torso. She half-turned to face him and he whispered, “wait” in her ear, continuing to caress her with tongue and lips.

 

A few moments later, he rucked her shirt up her back, and pulled her close to him and she felt his warm skin meet hers and heard the rustle of fabric falling to the floor. Her fingers found the buttons of her shift and she undid them slowly, his fingers following hers and sliding the soft material free of her shoulders. Only then did she complete her turn and face him at last.

 

The dark curve of his implants glittered dimly along his jaw and she felt an unease mixed with yearning. She met his mouth with hers, kissing him hard, forcing her tongue into his mouth. He took hold of her wrists and pulled back, breaking the kiss.

 

“We have time, Shepard.”

 

He kissed her again and their tongues slowly caressed and their breaths intermingled, tobacco and toothpaste and them. Pausing for air, they smiled at each other almost shyly for a brief interlude. His eyes darkened and he lowered his head, taking the tip of a breast between his lips, teasing it to hardness while his hand fondled the other. Her fair skin turned to dusk beneath his hands and mouth, and she felt it too, pressing her now acutely aware skin to his, yearning for his touch suddenly. He sucked her nipples, moving from one breast to the other, hungry, demanding, and her nerves fired and she felt the desire grow in her.

 

His hand dipped to his crotch, adjusting his erection, hesitated at his zipper then moved away. She reached for his pants and he lifted her before she could touch the pleated fabric. Carrying her to the bed, he placed her at the head against the pillows with an urgent ' _kneel'_. As she did so, he unfastened his pants at long last, pulled his underwear down, freed his erection, cast off his clothes.

 

His engorged cock stood up amidst the graying pubic hair, which was as tidy as the hair on his head, she noticed in a strange moment of clarity amidst her desire. He took himself in hand, stroking along the shaft then teasing the head repeatedly until a glisten of fluid dewed the tip and he was breathing unevenly while rocking his hips into his hands.

 


	9. Hunger

She cupped her breasts in her hands, unthinking, and he brought his cock to meet them, nestling then thrusting into the gap between them. Loosening her hands to allow him access, she stroked her nipples in ever-tightening circles as he fucked her small full breasts. He spat into his hand, laved his length and resumed driving himself against her. He moaned, half in desire and half in frustration, and she slid a damp hand up from below her waist to touch his lips, letting him taste then lick her juices from her fingers. Stroking his cock with her wet fingers, she brought him close to the quivering edge of release as she resumed enfolding him with her breasts. His balls ached and he pulsed then thrust, feeling the spurt of heat arc through him as ribbons of come trickled between her breasts.

 

He wiped her breasts clean with his cast-off pants, uncaring, only wanting her. She looked surprised then he flowed over her like a deep still river and all was forgotten, his body moving with her, soft insistent lips tasting her, lapping at her, eroding her shell, pacing her, until she was moving with him, rising with the tide, and coming to rest, fingers gripping his head where she had risen to meet him and still not been satisfied, bringing him to her again and again until she was at full tide, her salt on his tongue and teeth, fingers twisting for purchase in his silvery hair as she writhed and came, a moment before the engulfing hunger demanded more.

 

He took her hands in his and moved to her, kissing her, and she tasted herself on his tongue, and felt his renewed hardness against her thigh. He moved gently, guiding himself along her leg and inner thigh, unhurried, yet sure.

 

A haze filtered her vision while her body was in sharp focus, each touch, each movement felt acutely. She wanted him more as her vision narrowed, and her body ached. She felt the same sure desire in him as he brought himself to touch her at last, to just kiss her opening with the tip of his cock, moving in small circles against her. She both wanted him inside her, and wanted to anticipate that moment indefinitely, knowing that it could not last, could not feel better than now. As she thought this, he entered her and filled her, wiping away what she thought she knew, as she wanted him with heightened intensity. He kissed her as he moved in time with her desire, their desire, as the shadows thickenedaround them and the fish swirled in alarm.

 

He spread her legs further and she let him in deeper, feeling him vanish into depths she didn't know she had yet seem to expand as he did so. Moving now at her entrance, now deeper, he touched her every particle within, and all she saw was the depthless light binding them together. He lifted himself onto his arms and met her eyes as the light poured between them.

 

“Now do you see what I want for us?”

 

“Yes, I do,” she said, not understanding but knowing all the same.

 

He cried out and surged inside her, thrusting while wanting her to come, until her fingers found her clit and she joined him, and he let himself go at last, messy and wonderful, spilling across her and the sheets.

 

Parting slowly, he rolled free of her then lowered his head, licking their fluids from her thighs. She pulled him close, brought his head to rest between her legs as she opened herself to him. She found his damp shaft and sucked it clean, and he hardened in her mouth as she pulled on him with long strokes of tongue and lips. Her hands cupped his balls, fingers encircling the base of his shaft just so. Impossibly, he was close to climax as was she, and he rode her mouth carefully, urgently, while stroking her, tasting her every whorl and molecule with tongue and lips. A last grateful slow explosion filled them and they released each other then curled together, holding tightly to the moment, cast adrift from the hunger as its attention was briefly elsewhere, no longer strangers to each other.

 

They kissed and her eyes closed as he left quietly, reluctantly.


	10. Shattered

Shepard staggered through the dimly lit catacomb of the Citadel, bodies piled all about her. A keeper paused to look in her direction then went back to its task as she stumbled past.

 

She followed Anderson's voice, puzzled yet grateful for something familiar. Her eyes burned from weariness and the sudden light illuminating the metallic corridor she emerged in, climbing slowly upward.

 

A ripple of shadow blurred her vision and she saw the Illusive Man's face before her and shook her head to dispel the image. Blinking, she realized he was there, along with Anderson, in a large circular room. She stumbled to a halt and watched Anderson swaying as the Illusive Man spoke to him, watched the gun in Anderson's hand as his control wavered.

 

To her horror, her own hand lifted her weapon and pointed at Anderson, and she fought to lower it.

 

The Illusive Man was speaking but she heard him as if from a long distance away. The shadows, the fight with her own muscles, Anderson's effortful slow dance, all shattered as she fired at Anderson then let go of her weapon in horror. He staggered and fell, while she turned to the Illusive Man.

 

His face was writhing and his implants looked more pronounced than when she had seen him last. He struggled to aim the gun in his hand, now at Shepard, now angled at his own head. Remembering Saren, she reached out with a supreme effort of will and gripped his gun hand in hers, forcing the weapon down.

 

“Shepard?”, he said in hazy surprise.

 

“How did you get here?”

 

“I've been waiting for you,” he said simply. “It's time to take control.”

 

“It's too late, you have no control,” wresting the gun free of his hand, her words breaking on smoke-seared vocal chords, “I ought to kill you, but I can't. You remind me of Saren, you've given too much to the Reapers, to me.”


	11. On Your End

He pulled her to him and she dropped the weapon she had taken from him. She kissed him hard and slid a hand between his legs. He returned the kiss, first on her mouth then moving to her neck, kissing then gently biting her skin, moving down to her collarbone.

 

She looked at her scorched armour, the N7 stripe barely visible, and sighed then released him. Removing her armour piece by piece then her undergarments, she stood before him, looking out at the battle below. Turning to glance at him, she saw he had discarded his clothes as well. His implants were now visible along his ribcage and hips, accentuating his erection. Running her fingers along the outcroppings of bluish metal, she traced her way down his body then wrapped her strong fingers around his hardness. He responded by pumping into the well of her hand and she moved along his shaft efficiently.

 

Releasing him, she went to the control panel and stared at it, then pushed a likely sequence, with no result. As she leaned against the panel, lost in thought, he approached. Gripping her hips firmly, he pressed against her and she widened her stance and arched her back, inviting him closer. He brought his cock to her, moving along the cleft of her ass then lower, until he found her damp opening. He slid a hand around her belly and touched her, stroking her while he moved lightly against her, teasing her with his cock. She gasped and grew slippery beneath his fingers, against his erection.

 

She stepped back from the panel slowly, moving with him, and dropped smoothly to the floor, positioning herself on all fours. He took hold of her hips once again and entered her from behind, pushing himself in fully in one slow surge. She gripped him from within and he cried out. He grew even harder as she held him inside her and began pushing in earnest, enjoying the sound of their bodies meeting, the sight of himself entering her, the curve of her ass against him.

 

She groaned and pressed back against him while her hand moved between her legs. He felt bigger than when he had first entered her, in fact, it felt as if he were expanding within her, which was impossible past a certain point... yet he was hitting every nerve within her. He felt hard, hot, insistent, moving at an almost punishing pace and leaving her nerve endings flaring when he withdrew between forceful pulses. The ache she felt was so present that it nearly brought her to climax between his thrusts.

 

“Shepard, this is so much better than I ever imagined, all the times I masturbated thinking of you,” he confessed. “Better than Kai Leng. Better than all of it.”

 

She began to form a reply, and was interrupted by Hackett. “Shepard, nothing's happening. It's got to be something on your end.”

 

She groaned and opened her eyes.

 

“Shepard?” Hackett insisted. “You've got to do something.”

 

She did the only thing that came to mind.

 

“I want to see you as you fuck me,” she told the Illusive Man. “I want to see it all.”

 

He withdrew and she slowly crawled to the dais in the middle of the room and rolled onto her back. He was right there with her and he positioned himself on her, in her, as the dais began to rise.

 

She watched him slide in and out of her and the flex of his hips against hers as he rode her. His balls slapped against her as he moved faster and she propelled her hips against him, crying out in pleasure.

 

Her breasts moved as she writhed beneath him and ripples traveled her body, darkened her eyes. Her eyes met his and the darkness was between them, filled them, and the power pulsed in their bodies, as he met the wave of her climax with a messy thrusting surge.

 


	12. Within

Shepard and the Illusive Man stood holding each other as the Catalyst explained to them the cycle of chaos and stability, hands in motion, now like children seeking comfort, now like adults wanting pleasure.

 

 The Catalyst's words washed over them, over her, and she struggled to focus.

 

“And the other choice?” she managed to ask, staggering beneath her wounds and the whispering lust that animated her.

 

“Harness the Crucible's energy. Use it to take control of the ones you call the Reapers.”

 

“Control?” she repeated, then murmured to the Illusive Man, “So, you were right.”

 

“Correct... though he could never have taken control, as we already controlled him,” the Catalyst interjected.

 

“You don't control me,” he protested, writhing in Shepard's arms, reaching for the Catalyst.

 

“What would happen to me?” Shepard asked, silencing the Illusive Man with a fast stroke of her hand along his cock.

 

“You will become the catalyst. You will continue the cycle as you see fit.”

 

As one, they moved to the conduit, and Shepard placed her hands on the controls. The Illusive Man's hands parted her legs, stroked her rear, and he slid a finger inside her, the tightness causing an arc of pleasure with an edge of pain to flare along her nerves. He slathered his other hand with the wetness of her fluids, and applied it to his cock as his finger continued to work its way inside her, now to the second knuckle. Bringing his tip to her rear, he pressed inward while withdrawing his finger and she exhaled as he moved deeper in small strokes. She gasped and shifted around him, tightening and relaxing in turn to take him in. A grind of her hips against him told him she was ready and he pushed the rest of the way inside.

 

He placed his hands over hers on the controls and they fucked with the world ending below them.

 

“Tell me what happened with Kai Leng,” she asked, “before this ends.”

 

“I wanted someone who would obey me as you never would,” he breathed in her ear. “He already wanted what I wanted and he was               easily- shaped. Just as easily defeated by someone who was never anyone but herself- by you,” tenderly caressing the nape of her neck with his fingertips, burying his fingers in her hair, his body in hers, his words an echo of what the Alliance had said about her as she rose through the ranks.

 

Moving within her, he added, “I never wanted that with you, ever. The only way I ever wanted you was as you.”

 

“We're not ourselves anymore,” she whispered. “We're about to become something beyond ourselves. Do you wish that we had done this when we were still- _us_?”

 

“I don't know. I want you just like this, in the best way I've ever known you.”

 

“I want you.”

 

“When we come, activate the controls, and Shepard?”

 

“What?”

 

“I'm glad,” he said simply.

 

She convulsed around him, her orgasm fragmenting her conscious thought, and he felt his balls throb and the heat fill him, as he spilled within her. Their bodies fell away and their selves took a new shared form, and his last shred of human thought was that millions weren't dying as he came this time.


	13. Epilogue

A burst of light arced through the relays, through the mechanisms of all the galactic civilizations across time, absorbed them, wielded them as a weapon with which to control the Reapers.

 

The relay on the Citadel through which a dimly remembered someone had driven the Mako so long ago shattered and gave its energy to this new form.

 

A part of what had been the Illusive Man took note of the memory and brought it to their shared attention. What had been Shepard noticed the fragment and sampled the flavour of the remnants of what was now a mutual memory of their humanity, so often at odds during their human lifetimes yet now fused.

 

Untold years later, a glimmer of light above a moonlit meadow listened and remembered itself, hearing the name Shepard spoken, recognizing that that person had passed into myth upon her transformation. A pulse within glowed, a reminder of what was true, of the human she had been, from the inextricable other half of itself. This shared existence had been an approximation in her moments with other lifeforms, something beyond her enduring comprehension in that long-gone life yet now a source of solace and strength.

 

What had been them waited for life to journey to the stars again, to live, love and fight in all of the chaos the Catalyst had tried to regulate.


End file.
